STILL IN DANGER

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1940, Page 7

STILL IN DANGER

British Official Wireless.

WARNING FOR BRITAIN MAY BE AN INVASION YET PREPARATIONS CONTINUE

Rugby. Sept. 17. "The deployment of German barges and ships in preparation for the invasion of Great. Britain and Ireland continues steadily, and we must expect Hitler to make an attempt at what he judges the best opportunity," said the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, in the House of Commons to-day. "All our preparations must therefore be maintained in a state of vigilance. "The process of waiting keyed up to concert pitch day after day is apt in time to lose the charm of novelty. There is no doubt that it imposes a heavy strain on all concerned. But we must not underratc the damage inflicted upon the enemy by the heavy and prolonged nightly bombing upon his concentration of shipping and upon all focal points of his assembly of troops. Undoubtedly serious injury has been done to his ships and barges. "Meanwhile our strength develops steadily by land, sea and, above all, in the air. Sunday's action was the most brilliant and fruitful of any fought upon a large scale by fighters of the Royal Air Force up to the present. The figures that have already been made public, to the best of my belief— and I have made searching inquiries and several crosschecks — are not in any way exaggerated. Great Battles Yet. "Neither side has yet employed more than a part of its forces, but there Ls good reason for believing at present that very grievous inroads are being made upon the enemy's superiority of numbers and that we may await a decision of a prolonged air battle with sober but increasing confidence. "Tht: German attacks upon the civil population have been concentrated mainly upon London ln the hopes of terrorising lts citizens Into submission or throw them into confusion. and also ln the silly ldea that they will put pressure upon the Government to make peace," , Mr. Churchill added. "During the first half of September about 2,000 civilians, men, women and children, have been killed and about 8,000 wounded by the air bombardment, "The deliberate and repeated attacks upon Buckingham Palace and upon the persons of our beloved King and Queen are also intended, apart from their general barbarity. to have an unsettlifig effect upon public opinion. They have, of course, the opi osite effect. They unite the King and Queen to their people by the new sacred bonds of common danr. and they steel all hearts to the st.ern, unrelenting prosecution of the wa' with so foul a foe." Effect of Air- Raids. Turning to the results of the enemy's bombing raids and the efficacy of Britain's A.R.P. organisation. Mr. Churchill said: "Many hospitals, churches and public monuments have been damaged, but injury to our warmaking capaclty has been surprisingly small. We are only now beginning to get an lncreased flow of production from the great programmes started on the outbreak of war, and It is very agreeable to see that the increases are maintained over so wide a field in spite of the enemy fire. "To show how indiscrimlnate and wanton is the enemy's attack one has to compare the figures of civilian and mititai y casualties in the first fortnight of September. There were 10,000 civilian casualties from air attack. but onlv some 250 of these occurred in all the fighting forces." Some idea ot the difficulties of the task of preserving the health and well-being ot the enormous population of Greater Londnn which exrfeeded 8.000 000 souls, was given by Mr. Churchill. That heavy and intricate task was being efficlently and successfully discharged, and "our whole system of life and labour i« being rapldly adapted to conditions hitherto unknown to modern society ' The air raid precautions organisation in all its branchss. said Mr. Churchill, had proved its efficiency and the greatest discipline and devotion were shown by all He said he was unable at the moment to promulgatc new rules about air raid warnings, but "broadly speaking our plan must be to jse the siren, which it may be noticed has been cut in half. as an alert and not as an alarm, and to have a system of local and highlytrained 'Jim Crows' on the lookout — men who will give the alarm when immediate danger is expected at any poin- Upon this basis everyone must endeavour to carry on his work and see that output and public services do not suffer or suffer only minimum Interruption." The House thcn wcnt into sccret sessiori to diseuss matters conncctcd with various arrangemeiits under air attack.